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Retiring congressman gets wayside exhibit in Cuyahoga Valley
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal
Published on Monday, Jun 30, 2008
BOSTON TWP.: U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Navarre, got a new hat on Sunday.
Regula, who is retiring from Congress after 34 years, was honored in ceremonies that drew about 100 people to an oversize tent near the Everett Road Covered Bridge in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
He was awarded the post of honorary National Park Service ranger, which came with a flat-brimmed hat like that worn by Smokey the Bear, from Sue Masica, chief of staff in the park service's headquarters in Washington, D.C.
John Debo, superintendent of the Cuyahoga Valley park, helped Regula don the hat.
''It goes low on the forehead,'' he advised Regula.
Then the park unveiled a wayside exhibit honoring Regula for his contributions to the 33,000-acre federal park between Akron and Cleveland.
The display sits next to a similar wayside honoring John Seiberling, the longtime Democratic Akron congressman who pushed to create the Cuyahoga Valley park. That display was dedicated about 10 years ago.
The so-called Founders' Wayside sits on land owned by Metro Parks, Serving Summit County. Federal rules prohibit honoring living individuals on federal lands owned by the park service, Debo said.
The park was created in 1974. Over the years, Regula has helped funnel $200 million into the Cuyahoga Valley park for land acquisition and development.
He helped oversee National Park Service spending and played a key role in letting federal parks keep visitor fees for park improvements, a change that put $1.4 billion into federal parks across the country, Masica said.
Regula also helped to create the Ohio & Erie Canal National Heritage Canalway that extends from Cleveland through Akron and Canton to New Philadelphia.
Regula and Seiberling have been the park's ''guardian angels,'' said Diana Lueptow, chairwoman of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association.
The two men created the park, developed it, protected it and funded it, she said.
The Cuyahoga Valley park will be ''forever indebted'' to Regula, Debo said.
The park and the association gave Regula and his wife, Mary, a framed color photograph of the Cuyahoga Valley from the state Route 82 bridge by Robert Glenn Ketchum.
Regula supported the Cuyahoga Valley park, even though it was not in his congressional district, because he felt it was the right thing to do, longtime aide Barbara Wainman said.
U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Copley Township, praised Regula's efforts and pledged to support the Cuyahoga Valley park.
Seiberling was to have attended the ceremonies but became ill and was hospitalized Sunday morning, Debo said.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
BOSTON TWP.: U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Navarre, got a new hat on Sunday.
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